Dear Greater Hassocks,

Firstly thank you for supporting us over the last year. I realise there have been many competing demands on your time and money – not least 10 other cafe/coffee/lunch establishments in the village and several large well-deserving charities that have needed much support, so any grains are good.

It has, however, become increasingly obvious to us that there are too many day-time opportunities for food and drink, but not a decent balance in the evening. In 2024 we’ll try and redress that with later opening hours and evening meals. We plowed that furrow for 2 years before COVID arrived, as there was much demand but in the end not that much take-up. Let’s see if all this extra housing has produced a few extra mouths to feed. Hopefully, we can also do something about our lack of street-level access, as we know this hinders some of you who would love to come and eat or participate in the various clubs that meet here.

Going into 2024 our Opening Hours will change a bit to start with and get longer as it gets lighter, but the last daytime hot food orders will remain at 2pm.

Born out of the often-heard lament “Nothing Ever Happens in Hassocks” we started up Ha HA! in 2015- We’ve now decided to take a break from the bigger stuff. After 8 and a half years the logistics and the time spent organising don’t get any simpler when you have a nomadic existence. It’s good to see that Stephen and his Forge / so you think your funny buddies have taken on all we set out to do back in the day – bring comedy and fun time entertainment to Hassocks, then broadening out to our less fortunate brethren in the greater Hassocks conurbation of Mid Sussex. Next Up…..well who knows? nothing big but maybe some intimate evenings – beginners slots and warm-ups – but not before Spring at the earliest

2024

I think it’s fair to say that after 12 years of The Purple Carrot we’ve had many good times and a few god-damn awful ones. Things have moved on and populations changed. Yes we still make the best coffee in the area, yes we still come up with some of the most inventive and tasty foods but we struggle with just how much we have to charge to try and make a profit to continue providing the same quality of product. Part of our rationale has always been the community we’re in and giving a bit of help and succour to those who might be experiencing a worse time than ourselves but we can no longer physically afford to do this. So this will be our last year – in this form at least. When you think about it how many people actually do the exact same job for 13 years? it’s been fun but I need a break, and so do you all….probably